The duo were never photographed together in public.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: The six-month romance of actor Richard Gere with celebrity chef and writer Padma Lakshmi has come to an end.
Whatever was cooking between Lakshmi and Gere after six months of dating is done, reported Us Weekly.
The two first started seeing each other this past spring, amid Gere’s divorce from his wife of 11 years, Carey Lowell. Neither star ever acknowledged the relationship, nor were they photographed together in public, but a source told Us at the time that they were “having fun.”
“It started very recently and quietly. It’s very new,” the insider said in April. “I wouldn’t even go as far as calling them a couple. They are dating. It’s the first time Padma has dated anyone since Teddy [Forstmann, who died in 2011], and it’s something she’s been approaching very, very delicately.”
The source added: “They’re just getting to know each other. They’re just having fun.”
Gere, 65, separated from wife Lowell — with whom he shares a teenage son, Homer — in September 2013. He was also married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. Lakshmi, 44, has a 4-year-old daughter, Krishna, with ex-boyfriend Adam Dell, and was married to writer Salman Rushdie for three years before her romance with the late Forstmann, said the report.
E Online reported that Lakshmi looked happy and upbeat in New York City Tuesday afternoon just a few hours after news surfaced that her relationship with Gere had ended.
Wearing bright pink pants, a black tank-top and matching sneakers, the 44-year-old looked cheery as she walked around the SoHo neighborhood.
Last Friday, Lakshmi appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to promote the new season of Top Chef. Later on Tuesday, the celebrity chef stopped by NBC’s Today show where she avoided mentioning Gere’s name.
Instead, she helped out on a segment dedicated to high heels and showed viewers how to cook chili three different ways.
When asked about being a working single parent, Lakshmi recently told More magazine, “I have struggled with it. It’s not easy, but I have a great career and I have my daughter. So what I don’t have is not as important to me as what I do have.”